


One Call Away

by Alatyosi



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Despite the subject matter I manage to avoid mentioning the Daxamite by name, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-17 22:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15471036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alatyosi/pseuds/Alatyosi
Summary: After months of silence, Cat receives a call and voicemail from Kara, one that sends her right to the younger woman's side.





	One Call Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lostinlunar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinlunar/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas in July to you :-)

Cat told herself that staying away was for the best. She’d come back once because the world needed her, because Kara needed her. But when she’d arrived, Kara hadn’t needed her at all. Not beyond a pep talk for old times sake, anyway. She had a support system, she had friends, she even had a boyfriend and a CEO her own age to learn from. There wasn’t room for Cat in her life anymore.

So instead of staying, Cat ran back to D.C. and the comfort of Olivia’s offer. It was steady, hard work of the kind she could do best. A genuine reason to stay away and still offer something to the country and the world. And that was almost enough.

It should have been enough.

Cat wants to believe it would have been enough, eventually. That the pangs of hurt and longing would fade into the past the way so much else had. That eventually she would forget the difference between Kara’s smiles, between the ones that meant she was genuinely happy and the ones that hid a buried hurt. And the way she always longed to ease those hurts.

In the end, she knows it’s another lie she’d told herself. She could never forget Kara, not anything about her. Not after how thoroughly the girl had changed her, how much of who Cat Grant became was owed completely to one person above all else.

A missed phone call and half a voicemail is all it takes to tear down Cat’s walls. “Cat, I’m sorry I called. I just- never mind. I’m sorry to bother you, Miss Grant.”

She’s on the next plane home, as soon as Olivia gives her a knowing nod and a promise that they’ll handle anything that comes up for the next week. Or longer, should she need the time.

Feeling grateful Carter is out of town on a science retreat Cat lands in National City the same day she wakes up to the missed call. The time difference, combined with how little sleep Cat manages to get on a regular basis, is kicking her ass but the fatigue is nothing compared to the worry for Kara.

When she knocks on the door to an address she shouldn’t officially have, Cat has a moment of panic. What is she doing here, why is she back in National City after deciding it was in her best interests to stay away?

And then Kara opens the door, and those arguments are swept away by the gentlest of breezes. Because Kara looks like she’s been crying, like someone has taken the hope that’s so much a part of who she is and ripped it from her arms.

Whoever it is, Cat hopes they rot in hell.

“Miss Grant, what are you doing here?” Kara asks as she stands in the doorway, a look of shock on her face at the admittedly unusual sight.

Cat never stepped foot in apartment buildings like this these days, hasn’t for years. There hasn’t been much need, and she hadn’t seen the point. After years of struggling to make her way up from a gossip columnist barely able to afford her rent, Cat isn’t ashamed to admit she likes the finer things these days. 

“You’re the one that called me, Kara.” Cat tries to keep the snap out of her voice, but years of habit are hard to break and she sees Kara wince, just slightly. “I wanted to be sure you were alright.”

It’s a weak justification, barely any explanation at all for her actions. A few words in a message, one lacking any detail whatsoever, and Cat had packed up her life and flown across the country. Oh, it was temporary to be sure, but that didn’t change the fact she was standing in her former assistant’s doorway. 

As if realizing the situation for the first time, Kara takes a step back and waves Cat inside, offering drinks as Cat takes a look around the small apartment. Cozy, entirely Kara’s style, and somehow warm in a way that goes beyond the tiny space and furnishings. The late afternoon sun shining through the window makes the place glow with the same warmth Kara manages to bring to every conversation.

“You really didn’t have to fly all the way out here, I never meant to impose,” Kara rambles as she follows behind, wringing her hands and no doubt wishing Cat had accepted the offer of a drink. At least then she’d have something to do.

Cat turns to face her fully, taking in the nervous way Kara is standing, the way she can’t make eye contact. There’s something going on here, and Cat wants to know what it is Almost  _ needs _ to know. She’d never seen Kara quite like this.

“No, you wouldn’t, would you,” Cat says with a sigh. There are several small clues here and there in Kara’s demeanor, but she can’t make them fit together to form a full picture. Not yet anyway. “But what you meant and what you need are obviously different, so here I am, Kara.”

That manages to earn her a second of actual eye contact, and Cat is startled by the hint of tears she sees before Kara looks away. Whatever this is, she doesn’t like it at all.

It’s obviously up to Cat to breach the subject of whatever this is, and with a careful step forward Cat forces herself to her gentlest mode. The one she uses with Carter when he’s overwhelmed by the world around him. “Kara, will you look at me? You called me, even if you did hang up. There’s something going on, won’t you let me help?”

She wasn’t expecting those barely glimpsed tears to start falling, let alone for Kara to break down as completely in her arms as she does. It’s a shock, but Cat knows how to comfort someone in need. She’s never been the greatest at it, not for anyone but Carter, but she knows the basics. And this is Kara. Cat might not know how to do the soft and supportive thing, but she’s watched Kara and Supergirl interact with people enough to know that the girl needs physical contact and comfort right now.

“I didn’t think you’d come, even if I asked,” Kara says once her sobs taper off. Once Cat has managed to get them to the sofa, sitting close enough that Kara can cry into her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have called you but I just couldn’t help myself.”

“Obviously you needed me,” Cat says instantly, waving off Kara’s protestations. “Now then, what’s going on?”

There’s a second of hesitation, one where Kara buries her head further into Cat’s shoulder. Then she takes a deep breath and sits back enough to talk, but still close enough Cat doesn’t feel the chill of her absence.

“I’m pregnant.”

The words are quiet, and even with the lack of distance Cat struggles to hear them. And once they register it takes a few moments more for them to register. Of all the things she’d expected this had not been one of them.

It makes sense though. The way Kara had stood, the nervous way she’d wrung her hands, lower than her usual nervous gestures. Closer to her abdomen and the child she’s carrying. And Cat remembers all too well the feelings of shock and loneliness that strike when faced with this situation, the urge to reach out to anyone who might be a solid anchor in a rapidly shifting storm.

“The father, he’s not here anymore,” Kara explains when Cat stays quiet, looking down at her lap. “I think he would be, if he could. But I don’t know and even if I did he can’t be.”

Cat remembers the report on that, one of the few the DEO actually filed without twenty layers of clearance she’s not privy to just yet. Authorization for one Agent Winslow Schott Jr to take an indefinite leave of absence with contingencies in place for additional government assistance if needed. The reasoning was vague, hidden behind a few of those clearance levels, but Cat was a past master of reading between the lines. She knew from the report he would be heading off somewhere with the Daxamite prince, the one she knew Kara had been involved with at the time of the invasion. The one she knew had been sent away from the planet, only to return thanks to highly advanced technology that could only come from the future.

Clearly the prince had returned to the future, taking Winslow with him and leaving behind a pregnant Kara. The girl didn’t look any different, and given the time frame it was entirely likely neither had known the situation when he’d left. Still, Cat felt a flare of anger at the thought of anyone walking out on Kara. The girl deserved far better, someone willing to be there for her when needed. Someone who would drop everything to take care of her.

That particular line of thinking was squashed quickly, though Cat found it harder here than in her office or alone at home. Here Kara was mere inches away, rather than miles or even an entire country. But Cat had long ago learned to temper her attraction and desire and this would be no different.

“That doesn’t mean you’re alone,” Cat begins, thinking quickly. “Your sister, for one. And your foster mother. Not to mention the friends you’ve made here. Lack of the second parent does not mean a lack of support, Kara.”

“I just feel so guilty,” Kara confesses. “I should miss him more this time than I did when he went away before, but I can’t. What happened was a mistake, was me clinging to the past because everything was changing again. I don’t know what it was for him.”

This hurts to hear, and not just because Cat is feeling unreasonably jealous and still a bit angry. No, it hurts because Kara hurts, because obviously even with her support system she’s still feeling alone and adrift and Cat doesn’t know how to fix that.

“Why did you call me?” Cat asks rather than let any of that anger or jealousy show. “What happened last night?”

Kara is quiet, eyes closed as she takes a few deep breaths. One hand is cradling her stomach and the child growing there, and the other twitches on her thigh as if she’s thinking of moving it somewhere else.

“I wished it was you.”

If Cat thought Kara had been quiet when admitting to the pregnancy, this was another level entirely. Barely an exhale, hesitant and spoken with shame coloring every word. And with the admission Kara had pulled back even further so Cat now does feel a chill.

“I heard the heartbeat for the first time,” Kara continues when Cat doesn’t say a word, “and I wanted to share it with someone. I should’ve been thinking of him, but I wasn’t. I wanted to share it with  _ you _ , Cat.”

Well. That does change a few things. In all Cat’s longing dreams she’d never expected Kara to feel the same way. That was too far beyond what was possible for Cat to even entertain the idea. And yet here they were.

“I am very, very grateful you called me,” Cat says eventually, not missing the way some of the tension bleeds from Kara’s frame at the words. “And I would be honored if you called me again in the future, whenever you wanted to share something new.”

The tension is suddenly back, and Cat doesn’t know what she’d done to put it there. All she can do is watch helplessly as Kara pushes to her feet and begins to pace, muttering to herself at a volume Cat can’t quite catch. It doesn’t sound English, though.

Finally Kara slows to a stop, looking at Cat with a blank expression on her face. “I’ll call you, Miss Grant. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.”

If Cat were a stronger woman she’d accept that, accept Kara’s clear dismissal. But Cat is not a stronger woman. She’s a woman who’s been in love for too long to push it away when hope is finally within reach. A woman too stubborn to back down and walk away from Kara again.

So she stands herself, stepping forward right into Kara’s personal space with a glare. “You’ll keep me updated, Kara? That’s all you’re willing to give me after you just admitted you wished I was here, and not the baby’s father?”

“Well you didn’t seem very interested in being any more involved than that!” Kara tosses back, blank expression fading into anger as she responds to Cat’s glare.

“Oh for God’s sake, I told you I wanted to be involved. How else am I supposed to do that if you don’t call me, since we’re still pretending I don’t know you can fly?”

That’s not how Cat had intended to tell Kara she knew, not that she’d intended any such thing at all. The girl was still waiting on something and Cat had been respecting that for years now. But it works, and the anger drops from Kara’s face as quickly as it had appeared.

“You mean that, you mean you want to be involved?” Kara asks.

A dozen responses fly through Cat’s mind, but only one seems right. So rather than answer with some grand promise, Cat keeps it simple.

She moves to close the last few inches between them and captures Kara’s lips with her own, pulling the girl into a kiss that’s gentle enough to pour her every emotion through. For all that her living is made with words, Cat knows that sometimes they just get in the way.

“I want to be as involved as you’ll let me,” Cat promises when they break apart, still close enough to feel Kara’s breath on her lips. “We can figure everything out, where I’ll fit in your life and where you’ll fit in mine, but I want to be here, Kara. Don’t ever doubt that.”

This time Kara is the one to close the distance, and Cat lets her worries fade away. There will be time for those tomorrow, time to overthink and over plan for the coming months and the years beyond that. Right now all that matters is this.

 


End file.
